Google Wallet Card now available to order, ships in 10-12 days

One card can be used to access funds from a variety of other cards and accounts

While the NFC-based Google Wallet payment system may not have taken off, Google is taking another swing at things with a physical Google Wallet Card. Yes, this is actually a physical credit card that basically fills the same role as the Google Wallet app tried to do previously, acting as a prepaid debit card that then pulls funds out of any connected account.

The Google Wallet Card is a physical prepaid debit card that allows you to access your Wallet Balance in the real world, at ATMs, banks, and wherever MasterCard® Debit is accepted.

If you're in the U.S. and have the option to get a Google Wallet card, you'll be prompted in the Google Wallet app or on the Google Wallet website, where you'll then have to verify your identity and request the card. Verifying your identity is as simple as giving your name, address, birth date and social security number, but Google already had the necessary information from previous purchases for us to order with just two clicks.

The card will arrive in 10-12 days according to Google, and you'll be ready to activate it and set it up for payments thereafter. Presumably the experience will be much the same as the NFC system now, without the hassle of wondering if the retailers you visit most have the proper equipment — Google Wallet card will be accepted anywhere MasterCard already is.

If I had some money left over on my Google wallet before they shut it down and I didn't spend it then ( I know I should have ), will it be added to this card? If not, than I don't really see why I would need another debit card.

At it's current implementation it seems pointless and I don't see myself using it, but ordered it in the hopes of future updates. If it worked like NFC payment worked it would be amazing: Open the Wallet app, choose card to pay with, and swipe the physical card. Same as NFC, the card charged is always a MasterCard issued to you through Google, and then Google charges your chosen card for the balance.

The only thing that's not possible with this is switching the card type, since it'll always be a MasterCard. Unlike the Coin, you can't use it at Costco where they only accept AMEX, for example.

Although I like a thin card that's not easy to damage, does not need to be recharged, and does not carry several 8 of my cards' information on it in case it was stolen. Google can do something big with this.

I've got an issue with your point #2. Does the Google card carry the same protection if lost or stolen that a credit card does? If someone steals it or you lose it and they drain the card, will you get your money back from Google? Is it really more "secure".

That's assuming you realize what happened in time. Generally speaking, debit cards don't carry the same legal protections as credit cards. Granted, if this card can only pull from your Google Wallet balance, you potentially stand to lose less than you would if you lost your bank's debit card. Still, it's important to know what Google's official policy is.

I totally agree here and would have to look into it further myself before considering this. Those two points above are the kinds of points that I need to know when considering something like this. I think this would be a great restricted card access for kids as mentioned. Additionally though as this user here has mentioned, its worth wondering what kind of security is in place.

I would assume that this is going to act just like it would a gift card. Lost is lost. But then again, in this case, they have information on me unlike a gift card, so I would expect them to be able to reimburse in the case of theft. It would be interesting to see how this is implemented.

You could always keep your balance low and add funds when you need to. For example, if you go to Best Buy to buy a new $1000 TV, you can pull out your smartphone, add $1000 to the card, then pay for it.

That way, if someone steals your card, there's no (or very little) money on it for them to use.

If you were just doing this however, why wouldn't us as a user just pull out the card that we want to use instead of doing another step of transferring and using this card? Is this only for people who have multiple credit cards and want to go down to one without carrying them around with them?

I could see the potential for bringing a pre-paid amount with me somewhere so that I don't go over a limit without knowing...like the casino, heh. Or some other small trip or something. But it's tough to see me using this as a replacement at the moment.

I was unaware of this one, however I suppose the advantage of the later would be that your credit card number is not visible or lost if your kids lost the card ( I assume that it is under the same number, but I an unaware credit card sharer). However, I'll look into this since it is enticing; didn't know they did that.

It just means you can use it anywhere mastercard is accepted. Most places generally accept visa and mastercard so you shouldn't have a problem. About the only place i go to that doesn't accept visa but does accept mastercard is the Illinois DMV. (LOL... no clue...)

Almost all places that accept Visa also accept Mastercard. The vast majority of locations that accept credit cards accept Mastercard. Amex is a different story..Most places accept their card but not as many as Visa and Mastercard.

Need more info. Does it say MasterCard on it anywhere? Can it be used worldwide when linked to a US card? I link my AmEx to it and would like to use it in Europe as AmEx does not charge foreign transaction fees. Also, many merchants where I go only take Visa and MasterCard. Any fees associated with it's use?

The Google Support page is a bit light on details, but it should work in the exact same way the NFC-based Google Wallet system already does. That means it charges to your Google account, then the funds are withdrawn from whatever bank/debit/credit card you have associated with the account.

No word on whether it will work outside the US (I'd assume it does anywhere MasterCard is accepted) or the specific fee structure. We do know that they charge a flat % fee for paying with a credit card associated with GW, but no fee when associating with debit/bank.

I've never paid any fee for using it linked to my AmEx credit card. I don't know what the merchant pays. I was under the impression the flat fee was for sending money via Wallet when not linked to a bank account.

"prepaid debit card that then pulls funds out of any connected account."

That's not entirely true, according to the terms and conditions on the Wallet site. The physical card only pulls funds from your Wallet account balance, it doesn't take money out of your bank account/credit cards on the fly. You have to transfer those funds to your Wallet account to be able to use them with the card. If, for example, you have a $10 Google Wallet balance, you can only use the card to make a purchase of $10 or less without overdrawing your Wallet account or transferring money from another account/card before making the purchase.

I don't read "prepaid debit card that then pulls funds out of any connected account" quite that way. I read it as The Wallet card will pull from your google account balance and then pull from any other connected accounts. So if you have a $10 balance on the wallet account and made a $20 purchase, it would pull from your bank account or any connected credit/debit cards. Just like how it works on Paypal.

That line you quoted is from the article. SEJ is saying the article is incorrect. If you look at the quote from the actual Google press release it says

"The Google Wallet Card ... allows you to access your Wallet Balance in the real world"

I agree with SEJ that Google's wording makes it seem that this Wallet Balance is a preloaded amount you've already given to Google, not the dynamic "pull from a specified account" type of system which the article paints it to be.

(c) Payment Transaction Limits. You can only make transactions using the Google Wallet Card to the extent that you have Google Wallet Balance to support those transactions. Therefore, you should know the amount available in your Google Wallet Balance to use the Google Wallet Card. You agree not to make a purchase or other transaction in excess of your Google Wallet Balance. If you do make a purchase or other transaction that exceeds the balance available in your Google Wallet Balance, you agree that we can recover any negative balance incurred as indicated in Section 6.1(f).

If you have zero or negative Google Wallet Balance, any subsequent transaction authorizations using your Google Wallet Balance will be declined. Any transaction attempted for more than the amount available in your Google Wallet Balance may be declined if that merchant does not accept more than one form of payment.

Unless I'm understanding that incorrectly, it sounds like all the money has to be in your Wallet balance and it won't draw on any other accounts/cards if your balance doesn't cover it. They may certainly add that type of functionality in the future but as of now, I don't think that's how it works.

"If you do make a purchase or other transaction that exceeds the balance available in your Google Wallet Balance, you agree that we can recover any negative balance incurred as indicated in Section 6.1(f)."

I think the article is painting this picture wrong. This is not a Coin competitor. This lets you spend money that is sitting in your Google Wallet balance. It doesn't allow dynamically pulling from different sources (or any sources other than Google).

Here it is: The Coin card violates Visa (and probably other's) terms of service. It is a proof of concept that faces huge hurdles to become a real product. If a stores computer system is down and they need to imprint your card and you are only carrying your Coin, your out of luck. Any store that checks physical cards when you make a purchase will likely not take the Coin. If scanners are down and the cashier is keying in cards manually and you are using Coin, you are out of luck.

Meanwhile, with the Google Wallet card, it provides most of the convinience of a Coin card without all the breaking terms of service and hassle.

Very valid points about the Coin card. Essentially with most tech, if it breaks, you have backed yourself in a corner by becoming dependent on it.

However, the Google Wallet card offers none of the conveniences of the Coin card. The google wallet card only pulls from your Wallet balance NOT your bank account, debit card or credit card. The google site is very misleading about this.

Hypothetical: you sock bits of cash away on your google wallet account because you like paying for Play items from this source as opposed from your credit/debit card. Now you can use that same source of cash in brick and mortar retailers.

It's not for everyone. A lot of people don't even use Google Wallet. I like keeping a bit of cash there for all of my google-centric purchases. I buy apps, movies, and books from this balance. I'm currently saving for my Nexus 5 by way of Google Wallet.

Security is a big reason to use this. This card will act as a proxy for your existing cards. If it is stolen, you can remotely deactivate it.

Another reason: Since it can proxy your bank and credit cards, you don't need to carry the other physical cards. Your wallet is now a lot lighter/thinner.

The whole point of Google Wallet is along the same lines as having a Google Voice account: You use one item capable of replacing several others. (Google Voice is one phone number that when called will route the call to any of several locations at once.)

For this physical Google Wallet card, the Google Wallet app (or the website) can be used to switch to whichever bank account or credit card you want to proxy. It can draw from a balance maintained on the Google Wallet account or can fail-over to a connected bank account (if there are insufficient funds in the Google Wallet account). This card is basically an alternative for situations in which your NFC-equipped phone can't be used to make an NFC payment in a store (because either the merchant doesn't have the NFC equipment or doesn't have it turned on, etc.) With this card, you still get all the benefits of using Google Wallet.

If you've never used Google Wallet on your phone to pay for something in a store, then I could see why you'd be confused. The experience is foreign to you. For those that use Google Wallet regularly, this is just another option to fill the gap of merchants that don't have NFC set up.

I think the terms quoted by SEJ above pretty much indicate that this does not work like the NFC payment option at all. If you do not have funds already in your Wallet account the transaction will be declined. It is simply a debit card for Google Wallet. It does not draw from any linked credit card.

False. This will work exactly like the Paypal debit card, which is legally structured the same way. Paypal and Google aren't banks and in order to avoid being regulated as such they are issuing prepaid MasterCards. The loophole they're using to allow you to use a backup finding source is that bit of legalese that explains that they are merely reimbursing themselves for your exceeding your balance.

does anyonee know if i can somehow get rid of 48 cents of my google balance?
i moved to the US from Canada and it wont let me change my country (and use wallet because its only available in the US) because i have that balance!

Correct. Once you use up the balance in your Google Wallet they deny the transaction. There is some nasty fine print in there about them reserving the right to dig into your bank account and get any overdrafts that would occur. Not sure how possible it would be since they clearly state they deny anything over the balance, but good to know.

That's actually the bit that they use as a loophole to allow you to exceed your balance. The backup finding source is technically you just giving them a way to recover the money you "owe" them after exceeding your balance. Exactly how PayPal's cards work.

Which bank is backing this? My Mastercard is through Citi. When I had an error in my account (Walmart charged me twice for the same cart of groceries) I simply filed a dispute with Citi and they gave me the money back on the spot and looked into the charge and had it dismissed. Who will handle disputes like this? Google? I have zero faith Google would do anything to get my money back in a dispute. Usually a card like this will have a bank running it for customer service and handling all the payments and things.

Edit - Maybe I am thinking about this wrong because of how it is presented in this article. This isn't actually a credit card at all is it? This is just a google wallet card which pulls funds from my wallet account which I can fill up with my regular credit card. So, essentially it is creating a middle man between me and my credit card. Not very useful for me I guess but maybe useful to people who do not have a credit card and buy google play cards with cash or something.

No it works the same as the Paypal card. They are prepaid MasterCards to avoid being regulated as banks, but they allow you to exceed your balance if a debit or credit card is set as a backup funding source. The legalese they use is that if you exceed your balance, then you will have a negative balance and that funding source is their way of reimbursing themselves and getting your balance back to 0.

This makes no sense to me at all. If my debit card gets stolen, I call the bank and deactivate it, thereby making me not responsible for the purchases made after I lost it. How is this different than the Wallet card? Google is basically giving away a card to put in my wallet to replace a card I already have in my wallet.

Basically Google is a middleman to all of your purchases now, so they can see what you buy and sell more advertising to target you. Since they don't make money on the card or the purchases, that has got to be the only benefit.

Glad my Moto X got 4.4 and works with the NFC tap-to-pay.

What Google really needs to work on is getting their "Pay with Google" out on more websites. You can currently pay with Paypal on almost every damn website, but very few have Google. I make a ton of purchases online and having easy payment through Google would definitely be a plus for me.

Big Google fan here. But lately Google has been making some very brazen moves to start monetizing all of our personal information (youtube=Google+,etc) and I for one would prefer to keep some things out of their hands.

This was really exciting for about 3 seconds. Then I realized it's not a proxy card. All it does is pull from your existing Wallet balance. There's no way to make it automatically put new purchases on a specific credit card. Oh well.

The bold, large font line directly below the image at the top of this article is 100% wrong and misleading.
"One card can be used to access funds from a variety of other cards and accounts"
The Google Wallet card can only access funds from one account and zero other cards. It does not ever access anything other than your Google Wallet balance and there is no way for this card to pull funds from any other location. This is all explained very clearly in the FAQ. http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html#tab=faq-card

It would be cool if I could use this card. Google Makes the payment, and then I go in after the fact to my Gwallet and specify which Credit/Debit card I want to use to make the payment. Or have it default to my debit card, yet let me change it to a credit card from my phone if I want to use a credit card for something.

I think NFC will take off, now that ISIS is out, AT&T and Verizon have to let people use Google Wallet to make NFC payments too or it is collusion, and the new software update for the Moto X on Verizon proves that.

Yeah, but Google would have no way to know if you have funds available to complete the transaction. They'd have to trust that you'd later select a payment method and that there were sufficient funds to cover the purchase.

Security? If my credit card gets stolen, I can disable it with a phone call or via the web. Even better, if I don't realize it's missing for a week, I still have zero liability for any charges made on it..

The only advantage I see to this is for those who can't qualify for a credit card. It's no different than any other pre-paid MasterCard.

Not sure if is see the point of this (as a consumer). For Google, this is great. The more people that use this, the more data they get about what people are buying. Same concept of using any other Google product. But at least with the other products, you are getting value out of them. I don't see what I would get out of this that is a step up from using my regular credit card. If anything, it looks like a step back since I don't get any reward points or anything.

I thought I would be able to got to my phone and select the card that I want to pass the transaction to and have it done. That's how Wallet on my phone works.
I select the default card and then all my transactions are made on that card. Change the default, card charged changes.

I wanted a physical wallet card that behaved like the app only with changing the card at the back end via the app.

That is exactly what this does. If you read the TOS you will see that if you don't have a balance it will draw from your Funding Accounts. This is exactly how Wallet on your phone works, but with a physical card instead of a virtual card. Just use the app on your phone to change the default Funding Account if you need to before you use the card to pay. Here is the applicable verbiage from the TOS.

Have I missed something. Last night I was able to download Google Wallet via PC to my T-Mobile Galaxy S2 (Non-Rooted) I now have both Isis & G-Wallet on my phones. I also had the option to download the wallet to my wifes HTC sensation. Although I have yet to try it at a merchant I was able to log in and set it up. Any feedback?

Kind of a shame it's not NFC compatible. If it was, people could keep it tucked behind their phone, in their phone case (assuming they use one). Boom, instant tap and pay capabilities, and the carriers couldn't do a damn thing about it.

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